Hardships of a Rose
by KageNoYoko
Summary: Ruby Rose is a prodigious high school student given the chance to attend the illustrious Beacon Academy College at the age of 15, but finds that she has a hard time interacting with the other students, and some people are a bit sore about the little girl that snuck her way into the school. Full warnings inside, but include bullying and more as the story progresses.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: wow, I haven't had to write one of these in a while, but in this instance I believe it's recommended and sort of required to a fault based on the material, so bear with me for this.**

 **This upcoming story will include elements that some people may be uncomfortable with/disturbed by, and I must advise reader discretion in this instance, since I'd rather not be the cause of freak outs and break downs, including multiple forms of bullying, possible suicidal thoughts, and who knows what else.**

 **I know that this is a pretty fine line to walk, and I hope that people understand that I'm not covering this topic lightly, or sugar-coating anything that people have to go through with this source material, so if you want to hate me for this, I understand.**

 **With all that said, how about we finally get started.**

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A groan escaped from the lump curled up under the blankets as the sun shone in through the nearby window, and despite her best attempts at getting back to sleep, 15-year old prodigy Ruby Rose found herself fully awake, and being forced to greet a new day.

The effort to pull herself out of bed appeared to be out of her reach at first glance, as she really didn't want to have to climb out of her warm cocoon and deal with the ever intensifying cold of the winter months that had been hammering Beacon academy, but she had classes to unfortunately attend later today, and even then she knew that if she didn't get up that her big sister would be coming over and making sure that she would be ready for the day whether the black-haired girl liked it or not.

Sighing aloud as she threw off her covers and all but forced herself to climb to a sitting position and throw her legs over the side of the bed, Ruby felt a shiver run through her body as her feet touched the cold hard wood floors of her dorm room, making the girl consider giving up and going back to bed. She had at least put in the effort to getting up, so the world couldn't ask for much more from her, right?

No such luck for the girl apparently, as her older sister chose that moment to burst into her room like a wildfire, her long blonde hair bouncing behind her as she stepped into the room like she owned the place, smiling that megawatt smile that could light up a room, but Ruby hid her dread of.

"Good morning my beautifully gifted baby sister!" Yang announced as loudly as she could manage, her smile getting bigger if possible as she noticed her so-called baby sister was actually already up for a change, and walked over to pull the half-asleep girl into a hug that the dark-haired girl was too tired to try and fight off.

Spinning the smaller girl around in her arms with a laugh, Yang was in an especially bright mood this morning as she finally set her baby sister back down on her bed before moving over to the girls closet and almost ripping it open as she started to look through the younger girls clothing for something the girl could wear today.

Lifting up a hand to cover her mouth as she yawned, Ruby allowed her sister to do as she pleased for now, since she knew fighting with the girl would take more energy than she had at the moment as her body moved lethargically while she did her best to wake up. Much as she would have preferred to get going for the day at her own pace, Yang meant well, and Ruby did at least appreciate the fact her sister was doting on her, considering she had seen plenty of other siblings that barely spent any time together.

"You should probably go for something warm today, since I heard from Blake-y that it's supposed to be especially cold, and you've got to wander all across campus to get to your different classes" She overheard Yang muttering to herself, though her mind barely registered the words as she watched the blonde pull out a dark green sweater and the younger girl's favourite black-and-red hoodie.

"Yang, I can get dressed by myself, I'm not a baby anymore" Ruby finally managed to complain loud enough for the fair-haired girl to overhear her, but it appeared that Yang chose to ignore Ruby's comment as she grabbed a pair of jeans and brought them over to lay on the bed next to the younger girl.

Ruby found herself absolutely mortified when Yang marched over to the girl's dressed and began digging through it in search of underwear for the teenager. She knew that her face was bright red as she watched Yang doing her own thing, and though she wanted to chastise the girl for it, she couldn't quite form the words as she spluttered incoherently on the bed.

"Geez little sister, don't you have any clothes with sex appeal?" Yang commented as she pulled out one of Ruby's many pair of plain black panties and turned to show it off to the younger girl "how are you ever going to get a guy if you don't show off what mom and dad gave ya!"

"I don't want to show off anything Yang" Ruby mumbled under her breath, looking away from the older girl and trying to will herself to calm down. The blonde obviously didn't catch what she had said, as she finally settled on the black pair that she had been looking at, along with a matching bra, and paraded them across the room back to Ruby's bed, where she set them down on top of the girl's other clothes.

"Get changed into those quick little sister, and we can go meet Blake at the coffee shop before your first class today so you can get your caffeine fix" Yang ordered the younger girl, and without missing a beat left the room, slamming the door behind her and leaving Ruby reeling from hurricane Yang after she tore about her room.

Resigning herself to doing as she was told, Ruby got up and started to undress. It didn't pay to try and argue with Yang about these things, and if she didn't do as told, Yang would just march back into the room and "help" Ruby go faster.

Sometimes the prodigy wished that she had simply decided to stay at her own grade level instead of going off to college with her older sister when she had to deal with things like this on a near-daily basis.

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There was a small smile on the dark-haired girl's face as she walked towards the building where her first class of the day was being held, a cup of coffee in her hand to fight off the cold and help her to wake up further, and feeling much more human after spending a bit of time together with both her older sister and Yang's best friend Blake.

Despite loving her sister dearly, Yang could still be a little bit much at times, which was why the addition of Blake being around made things a little bit easier for the dark-haired girl to process. While Yang was like a hurricane, Blake was much cooler, like a calm summer night, and had become quite proficient at keeping the blonde grounded.

Unfortunately the smile that had been on her face dropped off quickly when she noticed a group of older boys standing around outside of the arts building that she was supposed to be going to for her first class of the day, which meant that Ruby would have to have a very unpleasant meeting before she reached class, and could only hope that she would make it in time to avoid being late.

Sucking up as much of her courage as she could manage, Ruby marched forward with her head held high, and tried to keep her nerves off of her face as she approached team CRDL, some of the worst delinquents in the school and Ruby's bullies.

"Aw, look what we have here!" Cardin commented as she noticed the dark-haired girl approaching "a little baby is coming to finger paint in the wussy building!"

The rest of the boys laughed along with Cardin as though he had told the funniest joke ever, and Ruby had to resist rolling her eyes to avoid incurring their wrath. Hoping that perhaps today she would be able to get past them without a hard time, Ruby ducked her head as her confidence oozed out of her body and tried to shuffle past the group of four that were blocking the entrance to the arts building, but squeaked as she stopped when one of them grabbed onto her hood.

"Where do you think you're going Rosie? I don't think that we dismissed you yet" Cardin stated, and the other boys grinned as they surrounded her, leaving her few options for escape.

Releasing her hood, Ruby stumbled forward towards the thinnest boy, Lark, but barely managed to catch herself before she could run into his chest, and instead glared up at him as best she could.

"Aww look at the little bitch, she thinks that she's got a hope of intimidating us!" Lark told the others, making them all laugh again as the moved in closer around the girl.

Ruby almost shrieked when she felt one of the boys grab onto her bra strap through her clothes, but managed to hold herself back, biting her tongue to avoid giving them any more power over her.

"As I'm sure we've told you multiple times Rosie, this school isn't for babies like you, so why don't you run off home and stop making the rest of us look so bad in class" Cardin told the girl as she felt a tug on her bra strap that made her wince.

A smart remark hovered on the tip of her tongue, but Ruby just barely managed to hold herself back from digging herself in deeper by biting her lip, and tried to squirm away from whichever of the boys was holding onto her bra.

Jumping as the strap was released suddenly and snapped back against her skin painfully, the older boys laughed at her reaction "I don't even see how some brat like you managed to get into Beacon anyways " Russell told the girl "you don't seem as smart as all the teachers say, and I'm sure it had nothing to do with your dead mom."

"Maybe it was because of her mom" Dove replied with a smirk on his face "maybe just because she was friends with the headmaster they thought that they should let her bitch of a daughter into the school out of pity."

Despite wanting desperately to defend her mothers legacy and tell off the four boys, Ruby knew that it would only encourage the group, so she kept quiet and tried to let them have their fun with her, hoping that they would get bored eventually.

Believing that their taunts weren't getting to the younger girl, the group chose to change hears "geez Rosie, you are like the most un-girly girl in this school, why can't you be more like that Schnee chick, or Pyrrha, or your bombshell of a sister" Ruby couldn't tell who had said that, as she was now looking down at the ground in another vain attempt at getting the four boys to leave her alone.

"Have you seen her sister?" another of the boys replied "I bet that's why Rosie here is so boring, her sister got all of the hotness in their family."

"But don't worry Rosie" Cardin said in a fake-sounding soothing voice as he placed his hand on the younger girl's head "I bet if you ask real nice, and maybe agree to do their homework, some poor sod will agree to date you."

"Ha, yah right" the rest chimed in before the group began laughing. Ruby found herself thankful when the clock tower that oversaw the campus began to chime, gaining the attention of the four boys, who smirked before turning back to face the younger girl.

"Well looks like our time together is up for now Rosie, we have a class to get to as well, but don't worry, we'll come back to spend some time with you later" Cardin commented before one of them shoved her in the back, causing her to stumble and lose her footing, hitting the ground with a grunt of pain.

Laughing as they walked off, Ruby was left to hurry and grab her bag and run off into the arts building, hoping to be able to make it to class before any more time passed.

It appeared that luck was on her side, as she slipped into the room just before the teacher started the lecture, and he didn't say anything to her about nearly being late.

Sliding into her seat at the back of the room and ignoring the eyes that were on her, Ruby ducked her head as she withdrew the books she needed from her bag and opened them up on the desk as she tried to force the thoughts of the boys taunts from her mind and focus on class.

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It may have only been a little after noon, but Ruby was already feeling drained from the day she had been having so far. Between Yang crashing through her room like a whirlwind, the bullies harassing her, and the workload of a collage student being put onto a teenager, Ruby was sorely missing her warm bed, and wishing for the lecture to end so that she could go back to her dorm.

Unfortunately history was one of her least-favourite classes of the day, and worse, their teacher had told them at the beginning of the lesson that he planned to assign a project to the student sat the end of class, which would count for a large part of their final grade for the year.

Staring down the clock as it ticked slowly towards the end of the lesson, the only thought playing through Ruby's mind was the hope that whatever the teacher was planning to assign wasn't going to be a group project. That would just be adding insult to injury on this crappy day that she had been having.

"And finally class, as I said at the beginning of the lesson, I plan to assign you all a project which will count for 30% of your final grade, so I hope that you all will take it seriously" Professor Oobleck told the class before pausing to take a sip from the mug of coffee on his desk.

Ruby began to chant a mantra in her mind, hoping to tip the scales in her favour 'please not a group project, please not a group project'

"This will be a group project to research and present your findings on a major historical event of your choosing, and will be due before spring break" the professor finished, making Ruby wilt in her seat.

"I will be personally assigning the groups, as I'm sure most of you would just choose to work together with your friends" a few people looked away from the professor sheepishly as that had been exactly what they were thinking of doing "and I hope that you will be able to work together at the cost of such a large part of your grade being on the line."

There was some groaning around the room as people resigned themselves to dealing with others that they might not get along with or be able to work together with in class, but Ruby all but slumped in her seat and hung her head.

'I already can't relate to anyone in this class because of my age, now he expects me to be able to work together with a random group of people?' she whined to herself, already knowing that this was going to be a train-wreck.

"So you have to work together with a couple of people on a stupid little project for the next few months, big deal" Yang commented before taking a sip of her latte as she leaned back in her chair listening to Ruby's retelling of her day.

"You don't get it Yang, I don't even know how to talk to the rest of my class-mates, and they don't make any effort to talk to me. How are we supposed to communicate during this project if we can barely speak to one another?" Ruby argued back, trying to express the problems of this situation to her somewhat-dense older sister.

"I'm sure it's not as bad as you're making it out to be Ruby" Blake tried to calm the girl down gently "All you need to do is try to get the project finished, and not think about the fact that you're working with complete strangers. Just focus on the work ahead of you, and it will be over before you know it."

"Easy for you to say, when you guys get projects all you have to do is work together, since you share most of your classes" Ruby mumbled angrily to her fellow dark-haired girl, who continued to smile despite catching Ruby's scathing comment.

"So who are you supposed to be working with anyways little sister?" Yang asked, bringing the topic back around to Ruby's story in an attempt to make her stop being so negative.

"Weiss Schnee and Velvet Scarletina" Ruby mumbled just loud enough for the two girls to hear her, making Yang wince and Blake try to be sympathetic.

"Velvet is nice enough, I'm sure that you'll be able to work together with her without any problems, all you need to do is try to get to know her" the black-haired girl tried to defend the somewhat shy brunette.

"Schnee might be a bit more of a problem" Yang chipped in "that girl has had a stick up her ass since day one, and I'm sure that she won't be exactly thrilled to work together with the school's latest prodigy, if your few interactions are anything to go by."

"Yang, that's exactly what you're not supposed to say to make your little sister feel better!" Blake chastised the blonde, who did look sheepish for what she'd said.

"Okay, okay, you're right, I shouldn't have said it like that, but come on Blake, even you know how much of a pain it is to work with Schnee, we've tried to get along with her before and look at how that's turned out" Yang pointed out to her best friend.

Ruby shrunk down further in her seat as she listened to the two talk together, now beginning to feel like a third wheel as they got into a debate about working together with Weiss.

Growing tired of being all but ignored, Ruby excused herself from the table and left with her cup of coffee, a little hurt that neither girl noticed her departure, and began to make her way back to her dorm room for now, in hopes of maybe taking a nap.

Unfortunately it seemed like the day wasn't quite finished kicking her when she was down, as Ruby stopped in the hallway outside of her dorm room when she noticed Weiss Schnee approaching her from the other end of the hall.

"Oh uh, hi Weiss," Ruby tried to be friendly with the older girl, remembering what Blake had suggested to her, but stopped when she noticed the stormy look on the fair-haired girl's face.

"I only came down to this part of the school to get a few things straight with you Rose" Weiss snapped once she was within hearing range of Ruby. "First of all, I have never gotten a mark below 90% on any of my tests or projects, and I expect the same excellency from this one, even if I have to be weighed down by you."

Without waiting for Ruby to get a word in the white-haired girl continued "secondly, this is strictly a work-relationship that we will have with one another. We are in no way friends, and I don't want to spend time 'hanging out' or 'bonding' like I'm sure you're expecting if your sister is anything to go by."

"Finally once this project is finished, I don't want to talk to you again unless it's about school-work, and we will return to not knowing one another and not associating with one another after we complete our presentation."

Ruby stood there frozen, trying to process everything that Weiss had told her, while the fair-haired girl waited for her to respond. Once it was clear that she wasn't going to say anything, Weiss chose to take it as confirmation, and marched off "I hope that I don't have to lecture you about this again, and if you do forget, I will ask professor Oobleck to reassign me to a different team that will. Good day Rose."

A few people who had unfortunately been within hearing range had caught Weiss's little lecture towards the school prodigy, and while most simply brushed it off and went about their days, a few continued to watch Ruby out of curiosity of what her response would be.

Biting her lip, Ruby finally came back to her senses after Weiss was out of sight, and turned to let herself into her dorm room without looking back over her shoulder. Slipping into her room, the few people who had been watching shrugged before returning to what they had been doing, and brushed it off as Ruby's own problem.

Safely in her own room, Ruby could feel tears pricking at her eyes after the harrowing day she had been through so far, and could only wonder what else life could heap onto her for the next half of it, but for now she walked over, took a seat on her bed, and curled up on top of it while trying to will away her own tears from falling and making her look like even more of a baby.

God life sucked sometimes.

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 **Okay, that was the first chapter, and pretty heavy at that.**

 **A few things I feel I should say right here to avoid incurring anyone's wrath. I do not condone bullying in any form. Having been bullied myself when I was younger, and even now where I still feel a bit awkward in social interactions, I wouldn't think of agreeing with something that can and has ruined people's lives before.**

 **Second this chapter and a few future chapters will be a bit heavy, but trust me, things will get better with time. I know this was kind of short, but I'm hoping that it will grow out as we keep going, but we'll wait and see.**

 **Finally, to those of you reading this that have or are bullied, I'd like to offer a bit of advise that I should have taken back when I was your age. Tell someone about it, go to a teacher, your parents, maybe even the principal of your school if you can get in there. Trust me, it helps, and bottling it all up can have terrible consequences.**

 **Anyways, too heavy now, I need to go listen to something perky for a bit. Until next time everyone, Ja Ne~!**


	2. Chapter 2

Waking up with a groan couldn't be the best way to begin a new day, but after the day she had previously been part of, it was all Ruby could do to even pull herself out of bed that morning. She was at least somewhat thankful that she had woken up early enough that Yang didn't burst into her room and rush her to start the day, and besides that she had plans to take a shower.

Swinging her feet over the side of the bed, Ruby yawned and scratched her stomach as she got up and padded barefoot across the room over to her dresser to collect a few things that she needed including a clean towel and some undergarments, before she left her room to head to the floor's washroom.

Ruby tried to keep her head ducked as she wandered past a few of the other girls that were loitering in the hallway talking to one another, and managed to thankfully avoid anyone's attention as she made her way to the end of the hall where the group washroom was.

While she walked, Ruby allowed her mind to wander to different places, and inevitably it found it's way back to what had happened yesterday, including what had gone on with her so-called classmates, and her older sister.

Claiming an empty stall and sliding the curtain closed behind her to preserve her modesty, Ruby began to get undressed while her mind continued to wander away.

As much as she loved her older sister, Yang could sometimes be a bit overbearing, and it was especially bad when she was trying to do it out of concern for her baby sister. This was one of the reasons that Ruby had yet to confide in the blonde about what the older boys had been subjecting her to. Much as she loved her sister, Ruby had a gut feeling that if she did tell the blonde about what had been happening, Yang would do something extreme, and Ruby did not want to be at least part of the reason why Yang was kicked out of school.

It had already been a wonder that Yang had managed to make it into Beacon Academy, since her grades hadn't been all that great in school, but somehow the blonde had managed to succeed, and was ecstatic when she realized that she would be able to attend school with her baby sister.

Ruby supposed that she could try to tell someone else about what Cardin and his gang of friends had been doing to her, but Ruby had a feeling that other people would rather simply look away instead of getting involved with the problems of the school's prodigy, and since Ruby had never really had the ability to fit in with anyone in the school, she had no one besides her older sister and perhaps Blake to rely on.

The thought of telling Blake about anything made her stomach upset, since she was sure that even though she meant well, Blake would then inform Yang about it, and that would leave the dark-haired girl in the exact same situation as simply telling the blonde herself.

Between the thoughts of causing trouble for her sister by telling her about the boys that were bullying her, and suffering in silence, Ruby would simply try to learn to deal with what Cardin was doing to her in silence, since she figured that he would eventually grow tired of her and move on to someone else.

It might not have been an ideal plan, but Ruby couldn't think of anything else that might work better than simply grinning and bearing the harassment.

Telling a teacher might have worked, but Ruby already had problems trying to speak with the other students in her classes, and since they all saw her as some sort of prodigy beneath them because of her age, going running to a teacher felt kind of childish to the young girl. Going to college meant dealing with her own problems, and if she ran to a teacher at the first sign of hardship, then she wasn't exactly trying hard to grow up, was she.

Finishing her inner thoughts with a sigh as she shut off the water and began to dry off, Ruby's thoughts shifted away to Weiss' interrogation, and the strict rules that the white-haired girl had been sure to drill into her head.

It wasn't like Ruby simply intended to try and become the girl's friend because they were expected to work together on a project. It might have been nice for her to be able to make at least one friend that wasn't her sister since she came to the school, but Weiss was very different from her, and from what little she had seen and heard of the girl, she focused almost completely on her work instead of socializing, so there was little chance of finding common ground with the girl.

Ruby barely knew what to talk about with her other classmates, and kept to herself most of the time in class unless she was forced to speak to one about the course-work, as rare as that happened. She did overhear conversations between friends from time to time, but most of the subject material flew over her head, whether about movies, boys, or video games, so she felt further alienated.

Pouting as she realized she was just making herself depressed thinking about her problems like this, Ruby made sure that her towel was secured around her body to preserve her modesty at least somewhat, uncomfortable about the other girls seeing her, even if she was wearing at least underwear, and pulled open the curtain, a small hope in the back of her mind that maybe the room would be empty and she would be able to sneak back to her room and get dressed without having to see anyone.

No such luck it appeared, as Ruby caught sight of a head of bright red hair, which caused her to freeze up momentarily as her mind tried to compute what it was seeing.

This time allowed the girl, the school's sports star Pyrrha Nikos, to notice Ruby in the mirror, and turned to offer the younger girl a small smile and a wave of her hand "hello Ruby."

Spluttering in an attempt at forming actual words in response to the usually kind girl, Ruby fought desperately against the churning in her gut and the voices in her head shouting at her to make a run for it, and instead clenched her hand tight enough for her fingernails to dig into her skin painfully.

"Hi Pyrrha, how are you?" Ruby finally managed to force out through clenched teeth, still working on gaining a hold of her nerves, but also trying not to be rude to the older girl.

"I'm doing fine, I just wanted a shower after practice, and was lucky enough to find the washroom almost completely deserted" The older girl explained with a smile. This only made Ruby's stomach drop further, as she focused on the fact Pyrrha had said 'almost completely deserted.'

Dropping her head and holding her things close to her chest, Ruby broke eye contact with the redhead and moved towards the door, offering a parting comment to the older girl "sorry for bothering you then, I'll get out of your hair so you can enjoy your shower."

Apparently noticing the tension in the younger girl, Pyrrha tried to catch her attention before she escaped, but her request for Ruby to "wait a moment" fell on deaf ears as the small girl slipped out of the room, leaving Pyrrha to herself, feeling slightly concerned for the young prodigy with unanswered questions in her mind.

Ignoring all of the other girls that were still mulling around in the hall, Ruby sprinted back to her room and slipped inside, before slamming the door and leaning back against it trying to will her heart to stop beating so fast that it felt like it was trying to burst out of her chest.

Her shaking legs gave out from under her, and Ruby slid ungracefully to the floor, shivering slightly and trying to wipe the memory of what had just happened from her mind.

'Oh god I probably offended her' Ruby whined to herself as she tried to calm down, 'she was just trying to go about her day and then I burst into her life like that.'

It took Ruby a few minutes to finally calm down enough to get back to her feet, and after deciding to simply forget about what had happened, Ruby went about getting dressed for the day, and left her room with her wallet and backpack, planning to make a stop at the campus coffee shop for her fix before she adjourned to the library to begin researching a topic for their history project.

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Much as she should have expected it, Ruby was a little surprised to run into Blake at the library, but managed to hone her features to avoid giving away any of her inner turmoil to the older girl, and simply smiled and waved to the dark-haired girl as she slipped between the aisles in search of a few history books.

Seeing the older girl alone wasn't common, since Blake and Yang shared a room, and were almost inseparable the rest of the time, but Ruby was aware that Blake sometimes needed a break from the blonde, and did also have to focus on her own school-work from time to time, so she brushed it off and got her mind back on topic.

Unfortunately, Ruby was apparently especially unlucky today, as she found Cardin standing by the history section, and the wide grin that broke out on his face as she approached almost made Ruby bolt immediately.

"Well look what we have here, a little brainiac trying to hide away in the library, pretty smart of ya Rosie, but you ought to know that this is the first place us normal people think to look for people like you" Cardin informed the girl, his smile widening as he stepped closer to the girl, his longer strides allowing him to close the distance between them in only a few steps.

"Please just leave me alone today, I have an important assignment to start working on, and I'd really prefer not to have to go through this today" Ruby complained, but this only seemed to improve Cardin's mood as he closed the last of the distance between them and was now towering over Ruby.

"Aw, you think I care, why don't you just suck up to the teachers and get an extension on whatever stupid project this is Rosie?" Cardin suggested "I'm sure they'd give it to you, since they bend over backwards to appease their little prodigy child at every chance they get."

He began shoving her backwards until she impacted with one of the bookshelves, and Ruby squeaked in fear as his arms came down on either side of her head, pinning her between him and the bookshelf with no way to escape as he grinned down at her.

"Listen Cardin" Ruby tried to form words, even though her teeth were chattering from fear of the older boy "I don't know why you hate me so much, but why don't we just go our separate ways and forget this happened?" She suggested, trying to put on a brave face.

"Ha, you think that you can intimidate me Rosie?" Cardin laughed at the mere thought of it before slamming his closed fist into the bookshelf right beside her head "I don't think that you understand the kind of situation you're in here girly. No one in this school wants you around, get that through that thick egg-head skull of yours. You make the rest of us look bad by toting around all of those smarts that you supposedly have, and yet you don't belong here."

"You're fifteen years old girl, you ought to still be in high school with the rest of those snot-nosed brats that think the whole world revolves around them and that life is so hard. The rest of us are up here, trying to make our way in life, while some brat like you snuck her way up to our level and think that you deserve to be considered an adult."

"Get real!" He growled out, his face morphing to anger in a moment as he punched the bookshelf again "You might have enough smarts for the teachers to think you're something special, but the rest of us had to work our asses off to get here, while you just coasted along like some little angel that they think can do no wrong."

Ruby was visibly shaking as Cardin lectured her, and feared her legs were going to give out again as she tried to keep the tears from her eyes, knowing that would only prove his point. She could feel her eyes prickling, but she bit her lip to fight it off, refusing to give him the victory in this moment.

Thankfully the dark-haired girl was saved, as someone found the two of them standing there, and chose to intervene "Hey, don't you know that a library is supposed to be quiet?" A refined voice informed the pair, causing both sets of eyes to turn and see who was interrupting them.

Standing nearby was a girl wearing a pair of shades and a rather stylish beret, along with a brown scarf and very nice-looking clothes. though her glasses were on her nose, she was looking up over them at the two, giving them a look that Ruby interpreted as her trying to figure out what was going on.

Cardin immediately backed away from the younger girl, and tried to put on an innocent front as he patted the girl's head with more force than necessary "yeah, sorry about that, I was just telling my friend here that we had to meet up to go over some homework soon, and I guess I got a bit too loud" the lie slipped easily from his lips, but Ruby was still shaking, and wasn't sure if she would be able to say anything to either confirm or deny the boy's statement.

Of course the older boy hit the girl in the back to 'encourage' her into responding, and gave her an out "isn't that right Rosie, we were just having a nice talk?"

The other girl turned her gaze to Ruby, waiting for the smaller girl to either confirm or deny the boy's statement, and as much as she wanted to rat out the boy, the fear of his retribution was still very much a present concern, so not trusting her voice, Ruby simply nodded her head.

"Fine then, but you might want to have your 'talks' elsewhere, unless you want the librarian, or one of her little helpers to catch you two and throw you out" the girl warned before turning and leaving down another aisle.

"Well that was close" Cardin commented, before the uncomfortable grin returned to his face and he turned to look at Ruby again "remember what I said Rosie, and trust me that we will be having another conversation like this real soon."

Acting as though he hadn't just been threatening the girl, Cardin wandered away, waving over his shoulder to the younger girl, and offering her a small "later" before he too disappeared from view.

Finally alone again, Ruby immediately sank to the floor as all of her nerves poured out, and despite really wanting to, the tears wouldn't come to her eyes as she was still too scared.

Once she managed to gather herself once more, Ruby managed to finally get to her feet with help from the bookshelf, and stumbled away, deciding that it wasn't that important to be such a keener and start working on the project right now, and that she was sure Weiss would understand since they still had a few months until spring break.

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"What do you mean that you didn't even begin working on the project!" Weiss shrieked as she looked down at the two girls cowering before her at the table the three had taken when they agreed to meet after their history class that day.

"I at least expected one of you to start doing some research on a topic for us to cover for the project, but here we are, with nothing to show so far, and we've already lost most of a day!"

A few other people perked their heads up in confusion as they heard the white-haired girl's tirade, but quickly looked away when they realized who was giving the lecture, not wanting to get on the bad side of Weiss Schnee, her reputation legendary around campus.

"I could understand this sort of thing from Ruby, since she's just a high school student who managed to sneak her way into college, but Velvet, I expect for you to put at least a bit more work into this, since it's worth 30% of our grade!" The fair-haired girl continued, turning her glare to the brunette momentarily.

"Weiss, I don't think that it's really a bit deal if we don't have anything to show the day after the project was assigned" Velvet tried to reason with Weiss, but squeaked and went quiet when the girl glared at her further.

The older girl probably would have gone on for another round of scolding but was stopped as another girl took the seat opposite of Velvet, and glared right at Weiss, causing her to pause for a moment.

"I don't really appreciate you shouting like that at my best friend Schnee" The girl told Weiss coldly, and Ruby bit her lip as she realized this was the same girl who had stepped in to interrupt her 'conversation' with Cardin earlier, "if you guys just got the assignment yesterday, and according to Velvet have until spring break to finish it, you shouldn't be jumping down their throats right now to get it done."

Ruby was surprised to see the older girl spluttering as she tried to think of a response to the girl's chastisement, but it appeared the girl wasn't finished yet "and furthermore, do you have anything to show for the project yet either Schnee?"

"Well I did a bit of initial research, but I didn't want to settle on something until I got a chance to talk to these two" Weiss explained, but while it looked like she had more to say, she stopped when the girl gave her another look over her glasses.

"Therefore you shouldn't be lecturing these two if you don't have anything either Schnee, so why don't you three meet here next week and compare what you have picked up by then, and you can agree on what you would like to research for this project that's so important for your grade?" The girl offered as a compromise.

Still spluttering, Weiss didn't immediately respond, but finally managed to regain her balance enough to apparently think clearly once more, and reached down to grab the bag that she had thrown into her seat and slip it onto her shoulder "fine, but make sure that you both have something to suggest for this project, or I am going to professor Oobleck to complain personally" she warned, before storming off.

Relaxing back in her seat now that the Weiss storm was gone for now, the mysterious girl flashed Velvet a grin before turning to regard the table's other occupant "hey there red, I don't think we've been introduced, I'm Coco."

Unsure of how to respond to the girl that had saved her twice in one day, Ruby shrunk in her seat, but managed to squeak out a greeting to the older girl "I'm Ruby."

Not showing any annoyance with the girl's weak response, Coco turned back to her room-mate and smiled "yeah, Velvet here told me about you both last night, but didn't have much to say, since she claimed you don't talk much in class."

At the blunt statement, Ruby began to feel a little weird, so she was about to excuse herself, thinking that she had overstayed her welcome, and slightly concerned about what Velvet might have told Coco, considering the girl had seen her with Cardin earlier "well that's nice, but I really should probably be going now, have a lot of other stuff to do" Ruby said with a fake laugh to try and play it off as a joke, but winced when the two girls turned to look back at her.

"You can stay a bit longer if you like Red, we're not going to bite you or anything" Coco offered, while Velvet smiled at the younger girl kindly, but Ruby was now even more eager to escape, afraid that Coco might start asking about what had been going on in the library.

"No, that's okay, I'll leave you two to catch up. Okay bye!" She said as she all but dashed off with her bag, hoping that she didn't look nearly as ridiculous as she felt after running away from the two girls that had been rather nice to her.

What the girl didn't overhear was Coco commenting about Ruby to her room-mate "interesting girl. You said, that she was a scholarship student? Got moved ahead a few years and is some kind of genius?"

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After the rest of the day, Ruby was rather comforted as she took her seat at the back of the room for her technology class, the last she had to sit for the day, and was eased slightly by listening to the other students speaking around her.

A few more students trickled in just before the teacher arrived to begin the lesson, and Ruby allowed her mind to shift over to the work ahead instead of the troubles that she'd been facing, the familiarity of her major's coursework like a balm to her.

"I am going to be assigning you all a project to both create a fictional computer that can match the specifications I will decide, and research the different parts that you will need to purchase with a finite budget" The teacher explained to his gathered class, making Ruby's head hit the desk as she groaned under her breath.

'Another group project?' She thought to herself with dread. After being assigned that project for history, Ruby was dreading any kind of group work more than usual, since she was afraid of someone as bad as Weiss being assigned her partner.

Thankfully for the girl, she was a little surprised when a red-haired girl approached her seat before the end of class, and oddly enough gave Ruby a salute as she introduced herself "salutations Ruby Rose, I am Penny Polendina, and I am excited to be working with you."

"Er, you too I suppose Penny" Ruby replied, feeling off-balance again from the girl's friendliness to the person that the rest of the school usually considered beneath them.

"Now, we must be getting to work on this project that Mr. Polendina assigned us, so when would be a good time for us to meet after classes and talk about the assignment?" Penny inquired, still smiling in a way that Ruby found herself being sucked in by.

"I guess that we could meet later this afternoon if you're free, this is my last class for the day, and other than meeting in to speak with my older sister I'm otherwise free" Ruby offered, hoping that would be okay with the cheerful girl.

"Sen~sational!" the ginger replied with a small bounce in her step as she turned away from the younger girl "I will meet you at the coffee shop around 6, if that is acceptable for you?"

"Sure I suppose" Ruby said meekly, too afraid to turn down the girl's offer.

"Excellent, so until then Ruby Rose" and with that Penny wandered off as they were dismissed for the day, leaving Ruby trying to regain her equilibrium from the odd meeting with her class-mate.

"Well um, that was a thing" Ruby mumbled to herself as she began to gather her books, feeling like the day had been throwing her in every direction since she got up.

As she was one of the last people to leave the room, Ruby was sort of hoping that working together with Penny would be better than the train wreck that had so far been her interactions with Weiss.


End file.
